1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for configuring a cooperative cell in a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to support high-capacity data services, a wireless communication system using a high-frequency band, such as a millimeter Wave (mmW) band, may be considered to be a next-generation wireless communication system. In the case having a system using a high-frequency band, the system's Base Station (BS) has a small cell radius due to a short communication distance between the BS and a Mobile Station (MS), thus causing an increase in the number of BSs which are installed in order to provide coverage of the MS. When the mobility of MSs is considered, a decrease in a cell radius of the BSs and an increase in the number of BSs may lead to an increase in the number of inter-cell handovers of the MSs in the system, thus causing an increase in system overhead.
Compared to other wireless communication systems, the next-generation wireless communication system using a high-frequency band may have a high failure probability for a wireless link between an MS and a BS due to the movement of the MS and/or the obstacles, such as physical bodies, around the MS. Therefore, there is a need for a way to provide more efficient services to users and to improve reliability of the provided services, taking into account the characteristics of the high-frequency bands to be used in the next-generation wireless communication system.
In order to complement the vulnerable high-frequency band link, a new cooperative cell has been introduced in which multiple BSs may simultaneously serve one MS. The cooperative cell is comprised of multiple BSs, known as ‘member BSs’, which have a good channel state and which can allocate resources to an MS, and may be formed by taking into account the measurement results for a DownLink (DL) of each BS by the MS and a cell load of each BS. One of the member BSs serves as a master BS that manages the cooperative cell, and the other BSs serve as slave BSs. The BSs constituting the cooperative cell may vary depending on the movement of the MS and the loads of the BSs. The multiple BSs belonging to the cooperative cell may obtain diversity gain by transmitting the same data to one MS at the same time or with a time difference, and may reduce the entire communication time used to transmit the same amount of data to one MS, by transmitting their own different data to one MS.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.